Start for Stark?

“If you have read the book, this movie will insult you. The start difference between the book and the movie are at once obvious and inexcusable. This movie tries exploiting… ”

Never mind the lack of agreement between subject and verb. We are pretty sure the writer means “stark difference”. A quick Google search brought up another possible example:

“The heavy rains in the middle of the growing season in 1999 (August) seem to had less impact on the NDVI values than the start difference of the growing season in June and July.” [rains were heavy in August and comparably very light in June and July].

This makes sense as an eggcorn—speakers/writers aren’t familiar with “stark” in this sense so they think the sense is “the start[ing] difference”. That’s our guess, anyhow.

Re: Start for Stark?

The following are other ways of losing it, and at the same time, are a stock reminder of the state of the financial markets: stuck raving mad, stock raving conservative, stock craving mad, lock stock raven mad, and stork raven mad.

Conservative politics forum, discussion of Libertarian quiz:
Yeah, I think it would be funny if it switched your views like saying you are a stock raving conservative and it says you are a liberal, it’s kind of like a punch in the gut, well… It was for me anyways.
(http://www.defendingthetruth.com/global … uiz-4.html)
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Oooh, it doesn’t get any better than stock raving conservative

Movie forum:
I always thought of Michael Ironsides as just your typical stock raving villain, but he really did a great job here.
(http://www.space.com/common/forums/view … 18&t=14340)
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I liked the collocation of typical, stock, villain and actor here, with shades of summer stock and stock character

Game forum:
Sorry if that sounds like I went on a stock, raving mad rant (I do that from time to time)
(http://www.gamespot.com/users/PdPstyle/)
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The comma here isolates stock, making it look as if stock applies to the rant – a canned rant, a knee-jerk reaction?

African-American forum:
When that didn’t materialize for the majority of us, with our new found “freedom” (integration), we went stock raving mad and just hung out..sex, drugs, rock and roll.
(http://www.topix.com/forum/afam/T75C7113ENARDIGRJ/p12)
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A typical madness?

O.J. Simpson book scandal:
Nicole and Ron are in heaven with the Lord, while their families are acting a stork raven mad FOOL here upon the earth.
(http://www.oprah.com/community/message/5514)
It was hard to pick this one out from all the deliberate puns

More mundane is the reshaping stark driven mad which I didn’t bother to quote. Nor the obvious permutations based on the Database, such as stalk raven mad (stalk makes sense here).